Recovery of Lead as Lead Sulphide from Anode Slime Using Hydrometallurgical Technique

Lead is produced from ores, concentrates and secondaries using pyrometallurgical process routes. Different hydrometallurgical techniques are also employed to recover lead as metal or its compound. In the present study, an attempt was made to recover lead from the anode slime (12.75% Pb and 18.50% Cu as major elements) that is obtained during electrorefining of copper. Before lead extraction, decopperization was carried out using very dilute sulphuric acid leaching, where Cu was completely removed. Lead was extracted using brine solution as the leachant. The maximum leaching efficiency of 80.66% was obtained using 35% brine solution under the conditions of 5% pulp density, 90 °C temperature and 1 h duration. Lead was further recovered from the brine leach solution as lead sulphide using sodium sulphide by precipitation technique. It is found that lead sulphide of high purity can be produced from anode slime.